In The Other
by moonrae6
Summary: They always warned us to stay away...maybe I should have listened. Finding herself in a foreign land, Bella will need the help of her unlikely companion if she ever hopes to make her way back home.


**A/N: I don't own Twilight**

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Climbing up the wall was no easy feat. I knew if I was caught near let alone _on_ the wall, I'd be in for it; I had long since wanted to do this and I wasn't going to let anything deter me from doing what I wanted any longer. Growing up we had all been regaled with stories of the _Otherside_ by the Elder Council. These stories were always meant as a warning to keep safe the future generations.

The tales told of horrid beasts living in the Other: beasts that at one time had drove us to seek the Three Wise Ones and their magic. As it's foretold, among the remnants of our people, ten of the finest men were chosen and sent to find the Wise Ones and their dwelling place. The journey the men embarked on was said to have been long and arduous, but fruitful, as one remaining man was able to make it back successfully. That day, so many generations ago, the Wise Ones built a wall to surround the kingdom of Aeramor, thus enabling the people to live peacefully away from the beasts.

Just thinking about all the stories about the beasts and the other, made my anticipation rise to almost unbearable levels. I could feel the excitement bubbling up inside, even as my heart pounded with the fear of being up so high. Since I was a child, I had been curious as to what the Otherside was like. I had always wanted to see for myself if the stories about the beasts were true and I was determined to find out.

I grunted as I pulled myself up the rough stone wall, holding onto the lip of the stones precariously. Sweat dripped down my face as I looked down toward the ground. I had already climbed quite a distance and I had a fair span left to go in order to reach the top. Steeling my nerves against my burgeoning anxiety, I reached up and continued my climb. Hand over hand, I climbed until I finally reached the top. Signing with relief as my hands gripped the edge, I hauled myself onto the ledge and swung my leg over to straddle the wall. Settling my nerves, I sat there hugging the wall for a minute, before I sat myself up and looked around.

I took in the sights before me and found myself surrounded by the tree tops. I watched the trees gently shake as a cool breeze rustle through their leaves and tousled my hair. I lifted my face into it enjoying the way it felt against my heated skin after such a long climb. Way up here, sitting among the trees, it felt like I was in a different world. I found it to be, in a word—enchanting.

The way the sunlight filtered through the leaves, making them glow like thousands of emeralds, casting everything with a muted green light was breathtaking. I sighed at the beauty of it, content to sit and marvel. Most might have dismissed the view and its beauty as ordinary-my friends certainly did not seem to understand my fanciful preoccupations-but it was seemingly ordinary things that I found most beautiful. I guess you had to have an artistic eye to truly understand my perspective. As an artist, I always tended to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. I was always in awe of the world around me.

 _Always the one with my head in the clouds_ , I thought, chuckling at my own pun, as I sat looking around at where I was.

Gazing at the Other now, I was struck with how normal it was. I'm not sure what I had been expecting of the Other. As a child I had always imagined a dense, dark forest, shrouded in fog, and crawling with Beasts. I had imagined a variety of many horrible and grisly beasts lurking throughout the ominous forest in search of prey. I found it all to be very anticlimactic in the face of my expectations.

It looked just like the forests of Aeramor, green and lush in their vast splendor. I craned my head around, hoping I would see something, anything I had heard about in the stories growing up. Something that would make my arduous venture up the wall worth the trek, but there was nothing.

 _Perhaps they didn't wander this close to the wall_ , I mused, pursing my lips. Releasing a disappointed sign, I decided I had better find a way to secure the rope I had brought up with me and climb back down before I was missed. Studying the trees around me I looked for one with a limb over hanging the wall. A little ways down from where I sat, I spotted one. With a deep breath in, I placed my hands down on the wall, got my feet under me and stood.

Balancing myself with my arms, I tried not to look down or think about how high up I was. I carefully took a step forward, knowing one misstep could send me spiraling over the edge. Nervously, I took another step forward, slowly making my way toward the tree limb. I was over halfway to the branch, when a sudden gust of wind caused me to lose my balance. Flailing my arms around I tried to regain my balance, but it was to no avail. I screamed as I felt my body fall backwards and over the edge, down into the Other. Terror washed over me as I fell through the trees, hitting the occasional branch on my way down. Watching the ground rush up toward me, I tried to cover my head with my arms and squeezed my eyes shut, right before I hit the ground and blacked out.

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 _A/N: Hello! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I don't really have a set idea for where this story will be going, I plan to make it up as I go along, so if you have any suggestions on what you would like to see happen, I'm open to ideas._ _Tell me what you think and if you think it is worth it to continue this story. Thanks for reading._


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